VoiceThread App Activity

My grade 8 science class has been investigating light and learning about how light behaves with various materials. At a PD session on Monday I was reminded about the importance of getting students to see what they are learning in their every day lives. One way to do this is to get students to identify examples of concepts rather than have them write definitions or notes about the concept.
So on the 30 minute drive home I came up with an idea to get students to take pictures that demonstrated the following concepts:

• luminous
• non-luminous
• opaque
• translucent
• transparent
• reflection
• refraction

Students could use whatever device they had (iPod, smart phone) to take the pictures and then using the VoiceThread app they would compile the pictures in a presentation and add either voice or text descriptions of the picture and then email the presentation to me for assessment.
Today we tried this activity and it was pretty successful. I would say that most students were engaged at the Value level.

What worked well:

1. Students were in groups of 2 or 3 so that at least one person had a device that the group could use.
2. The VoiceThread app was fairly easy to use, even for students who had to create an account.
3. There were several issues with students unable to download VoiceThread (not available for Android, some iOS users had Apple ID issues) but this forced them to problem solve and think of another way they could get the information to me. 3 groups ended up sharing the pictures through Instagram.
4. It didn't take long for students to do this, most were completed in 60 minutes (would have been less time without the technical issues).

What I can improve:

1. I don't know why I am still shocked when students don't have email set up on their devices. They just don't use them that way. Before doing this type of task I will have to ensure students have some type of email on their device. The VoiceThreads that students created couldn't be sent to me because I suspect that students didn't validate the account through an email that VoiceThread would have sent them when they created the account. I was able to assess the presentation from the student device but it would have been preferable to have the presentation in my Inbox or VoiceThread account so that I could also make comments and provide feedback.
2. This task was fairly easy for students and next time I think I would give them more concepts to demonstrate.